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Topic Review (Newest First)

12-01-2011 12:53 PM

casey1999

Be careful going through customs with your herb gardens on board!

11-30-2011 11:14 PM

killarney_sailor

Reward enough is keeping the admiral happy so she will cross oceans with me - although she may be not going across the Indian Ocean - she is literate and heard about the horror stories.

That's a bit strange but the truth is that is not the first time that I saw a boat with plants in pots. I wonder how they would sail with all that stuff

Maybe you can ask them?

Regards

Paulo

Paulo,

Some time back there was a SailNetter with, I think, a Nauticat who had a herb garden, maybe just basil and parsley, in the wheelhouse. I know the Wombet has her eye on the sheltered spot behind the windscreen of the Malo. Never gets wet in there and pretty easy to attach restraining straps for the pots.

I don't know, it all sounds a bit out there sailing hippy for my liking but fresh basil is perhaps reward enough ?

Cheers

Andrew

ps - that would have been TrueBlue in the Nauticat.

11-30-2011 06:15 PM

Capt Len

RRRR--R ! Them's were the days.

11-30-2011 05:33 PM

PCP

That story remembers me of another one, with airplanes, not boats.

I was a 18 year's old kid, but already a pilot with some experience (I was training younger kids) when an Air force Major, that was that day the field instructor, asked me to go with his friend, a 10 000 hour civilian middle age pilot (from a big Air company), for an airplane ride.

The plane was an Auster. I took off and the guy asked me to assume control of the plane and we start to make some tight turns that scared the hell out of me. No I was not afraid of tight maneuvers I was afraid because I understood that the guy did not know what he was doing. He was losing altitude in the turns without noticing, increasing the airplane speed to near the limits it could break. I was forced to call his attention to it and when he pulled the airplane up without taking out some engine (putting a lot of Gs on the wings) I had to do that myself excusing to be interfering with his flight.

When we come down I was quite relieved and asked him if he wanted me to land the airplane (hoping he said yes) but he said no.... Well, what could go wrong? Even in a messy landing the plane should take it.

With some Zig-Zags he managed to align the plane (it was an airforce landing strip, quite wide) he put it parallel to the stripe and then without waiting for the airplane to lose enough speed, pulled the stick sharply back, without giving me any chance to correct that. Maybe that's how he used to do on a 747, but that does not work on a light plane. We went up before falling down from 3 meters high

We lost the landing gear, the propeller and had lots of luck in not having capsized the thing, that was gliding over the engine making a huge noise and a lot of sparks. I jumped the plane before it stopped, furious with myself for letting him land the plane!

Well, that was my lesson, the one that match your own. From that day on I learned that things are not always what they seem and started to have a lot more care in who I was putting my trust with

Faith in the skipper? Once upon a time I crewed on a Mapleleaf 42. Master's sextant put us 150 miles out off the Cal /Oregon line.Really rough,ripped mainsail, while furling, rode the boom back and forth when the sheet block shackle fell off .Motoring east in fog at 3am I thought 'that feels like a ground swell ' Went on deck to see a white line ahead. Sounder said 30 ft so I grabbed the helm and came about. My transistor radio indicated position near Wash/Oregon. But I'm not the navigator.---- Later I look out a port to see a large rock go by. Blunt's reef in fog at daybreak .--Later I spent some time at the masthead replacing the swiveling jib halyard block so we could untangle the halfway jib. Fairly choppy off San Fran and bruises to prove it. After several full on broaches, the wind dropped past the Cape but left a big sea from all directions. The engine was full of water and batteries dead. Only a crescent wrench and a B.Stratton portable. After things get going, I find the alternator output went direct to the ammeter by the compass and then to both battery banks. Duh? Pretty beat by this time. Motor sailing, 7 knots , fog, 3 am some where off Channel Isl. Skipper shakes me and says "We're lost" I go aft to see the taftrail log while he locks himself in the aft cabin. Our only chart covered Cape Flattery to Mexico but I'd been to San Diego by bus two years before and knew where it was so I motored for a long time and anchored in fog at Shelter Island at 3 am. Although there were 4 of us on board. I was tired of opening cans of peas and beans together and was pretty glad to get ashore and hitch hike north.All in all, I learned a bunch about ships and the men what sails them

Well, there is something we can take for that amusing story

Don't crew if you don't know the captain or if you don't trust him.

Regards

Paulo

11-30-2011 02:49 PM

Capt Len

Faith in the skipper? Once upon a time I crewed on a Mapleleaf 42. Master's sextant put us 150 miles out off the Cal /Oregon line.Really rough,ripped mainsail, while furling, rode the boom back and forth when the sheet block shackle fell off .Motoring east in fog at 3am I thought 'that feels like a ground swell ' Went on deck to see a white line ahead. Sounder said 30 ft so I grabbed the helm and came about. My transistor radio indicated position near Wash/Oregon. But I'm not the navigator.---- Later I look out a port to see a large rock go by. Blunt's reef in fog at daybreak .--Later I spent some time at the masthead replacing the swiveling jib halyard block so we could untangle the halfway jib. Fairly choppy off San Fran and bruises to prove it. After several full on broaches, the wind dropped past the Cape but left a big sea from all directions. The engine was full of water and batteries dead. Only a crescent wrench and a B.Stratton portable. After things get going, I find the alternator output went direct to the ammeter by the compass and then to both battery banks. Duh? Pretty beat by this time. Motor sailing, 7 knots , fog, 3 am some where off Channel Isl. Skipper shakes me and says "We're lost" I go aft to see the taftrail log while he locks himself in the aft cabin. Our only chart covered Cape Flattery to Mexico but I'd been to San Diego by bus two years before and knew where it was so I motored for a long time and anchored in fog at Shelter Island at 3 am. Although there were 4 of us on board. I was tired of opening cans of peas and beans together and was pretty glad to get ashore and hitch hike north.All in all, I learned a bunch about ships and the men what sails them

There is nothing like looking at a full size chart; beats the heck out of a 8 inch screen.

I do have electronic charts on both my desk top and my netbook. They are useful as a shift from boat to boat. I also have my toy charts on my Android phone.

I teach coastal navigation on paper charts and chart 1, using paper tide and current tables.

I envy you the cognac; for some reason as a I have matured my tolerance for spirits (cognac, sipping rum and single malt scotch) as diminished - brutal headaches.

Sorry about the headaches Jack. I was getting headaches until I found I had become allergic to Corn of all things. The damned stuff is in everything! Lots of alcohol products have things like corn in them to precipitate headaches. Lots of beers have corn products. Some I can drink, others will give me a headache after drinking even one. It's possible you may be allergic to something specific that you can eliminate, not just booze in general.

When I first started sailing in 1980 I crewed on a boat from Annapolis to Antigua. We had only a sextant, a log and charts. In a storm for 3 days we could not take noon sites due to clouds, used DR. The log we used was a metal fully mechanical one hung from the stern rail and had about 100 feet of line to a propeller. A few weeks ago I was looking to buy one of these but no one seems to make them. Everthing I see is electrical and solid state. Any idea where you can buy a mechanical log like this?

I had one in my first boat. It was the most modern hardware it had. well, it only had that and a compass

I bought it in England but I guess that nobody is making them anymore because that was an expensive piece of equipment. Yes it was a precision mechanic device and as all mechanic complex things it would be much more expensive to build than an electronic one. Mine was a lot simpler but it was basically this:

It was called a knotmeter. This guys still make an inexpensive and much simpler version that works not with rotation but with water pressure :

When I first started sailing in 1980 I crewed on a boat from Annapolis to Antigua. We had only a sextant, a log and charts. In a storm for 3 days we could not take noon sites due to clouds, used DR. The log we used was a metal fully mechanical one hung from the stern rail and had about 100 feet of line to a propeller. A few weeks ago I was looking to buy one of these but no one seems to make them. Everthing I see is electrical and solid state. Any idea where you can buy a mechanical log like this?

I have one for sale if you are interested contact me. This is a Walker log

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